


Headcanoning: Harvey

by CharbroilLaFlamme



Category: A Way Out (Video Game)
Genre: 1970s, Canon Related, Character Study, Character headcanons, Crimes & Criminals, Familial estrangement, Gen, Headcanon, Implied Relationships, Major Character(s), Male Antagonist, No Plot/Plotless, Organized Crime, References to Canon, Spoilers, gun use, villain headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-06-10 00:58:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15280092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharbroilLaFlamme/pseuds/CharbroilLaFlamme
Summary: A collection of little bits and pieces of headcanon for what I think Harvey of “A Way Out” is. Enjoy!





	Headcanoning: Harvey

**Author's Note:**

> This is headcanon stuff, folks! So it may or may not relate to canon!

— Harvey is a prideful, calculating, and _brutal_ male hailing from upstate New York.

  * He had learned how to phase out his accent picked up from his years in New York to make himself more unknown. But he retains some of the slang.



— He had become known by several names (as of the story, he is _Harvey Espinoza_ ) and aliases.

  * His birth-name is unknown, and very little is made clear of his origins such as parentage and ancestry. But he is of slight Hispanic descent, regardless.



— As a youth his family split up and as a result, he ran away from home from his broken household—went renegade and became a con artist.

— Along the way to the present day of the story, he had met several notable allies. One of which being one Jasmine Sandford. She is an abrasive, downright traitorous woman who was known well in the arms trading business. A lady after Harvey’s own heart.

  * They had a relationship for a short while, but nothing came of it and since then they were only in it for the business and the scratch that came with it. But Harvey was not above pushing the envelope by making a few jokes or advances now and then.


  * As of the game, the two are estranged and strained.



— Harvey had been burned before by many a bad deal and eventually turned away from trust as a liability and led him to the present day conclusion of _betray them before they can do the same to you._

  * He has, however, amassed several life-long partnerships with those such as Dragomir Vlahović, Ray Fowler, the aforementioned Jasmine Sandford, and Sean Paddon.



— His origins are startlingly similar to Leo’s, starting from youth. But rather than Leo’s transference to an Orphanage, he escaped from his home to find more to life. It was like he had vanished into the night.

— Harvey’s history is checkered and shrouded in mystery, but in his early days of his organised crime business, he had been caught several times.

  * He was temporarily detained a few of those times, but numerous attempted calls to his family had brought up naught, as his family had changed their contact information and the family had scattered to different parts of the country.


  * He was sent to a variety of juvenile detention institutions but had escaped every single one with help from his peers (even in his youth, a skilful manipulator).



— Harvey had a brother, who was a great deal older than him. His brother was in the Marines and had taken the liberty of teaching Harvey how to strip guns, and operate several weapons. Most of them were simple rifles, pistols, revolvers. But later on, Harvey used that knowledge and went on to train himself in several other categories of weapons and explosives.

— Jasmine was actually only the _third_ partner he’d made. The first two were Sean Paddon, and Ray Fowler. The fourth partner was Dragomir Vlahović.

  * Sean Paddon: He is the reliable go-between with Harvey’s more obscure connections. He is by far the most reasonable and level-headed of Harvey’s cronies. He is fluent in multiple languages and is Harvey’s most trusted and loyal confidante (or even friend). He is the youngest of Harvey’s gang. He comes from Florida.


  * Ray Fowler: A man that served as one of Harvey’s main informants. He is a neurotic and profane fellow who is an easy target for people looking to extort information on Harvey. Despite that, Harvey still recognises him as an asset (likely as a lookout or intel bloodhound, or even perhaps a _decoy_ ) and kept him around up until he divulged his location to Leo. His origins lie in New Jersey.


  * Jasmine Sandford: At the risk of reiterating her above description, her meeting with Harvey was a tense one, from which their temporary romance sprouted like a weed. He had used the money he’d earned from pawning off his family’s stolen belongings to buy a few weapons off of Jasmine. Before Leo, she was actually the one who had tagged along on some of Harvey’s robberies. She comes from New York as well.


  * Dragomir Vlahović: His line of work is a mixed bag, scattered among several categories of expertise. He works as an interrogator, blackmailer, hitman, and forger. He finds that being hired muscle is far more fulfilling than paperwork. He was also Harvey’s bodyguard prior to the game. He is the oldest of Harvey’s gang and hails from Serbia.



— Harvey is unmarried, and finds that having someone so close to his “bubble of business” without being involved is... _unsuitable_ for his purposes.

  * He considers Leo a fool for involving his family in the crime business. He often repeatedly reminded Leo that by talking about his family so loosely, he was handing his weaknesses on a silver platter to those who wanted to use him. Leo’s trusting nature backfired dangerously on him in that regard.



— Harvey is highly intelligent and strategic. And can easily differentiate between a good deal and a bad one. He can tell undercover from legit pretty quickly, though sometimes he would let them continue the act until it became unnecessary.

  * However, he too, can make mistakes. He is fuelled by greed and pride and will have no qualms about using even his most useful tools as bait. Should his bait survive the betrayal, however, he would be forced to take far more drastic measures to gain the upper hand.



— He is easy to irritate and has no patience for unsatisfactory deals. As the lynchpin of his gang, he cannot afford to make a bad deal during the present time of the story’s timeline. If his buyers are not agreeable, he will eliminate them to prevent them from making any subsequent pushes against his organisation.

— He is a far more exaggerated reflection of Leo during the story. The far more aggressive, violent, and impulsive version of what Leo could have been. Given that he’s doing his work for himself, he has no reason to keep his victims or tools alive therefor anyone can be a means to an end.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes!:
> 
> — I intended for Harvey to be a foil for Leo’s character, much as he is in the game itself.
> 
> — Harvey is an interesting character that I imagined had origins similar to Leo.
> 
> — I enjoy the idea that Jasmine and Harvey had a brief fling which ended terribly and led to a tense half-friendship that the two can benefit from.
> 
> — I wanted to imply a little more about Harvey, but I didn’t want to get too spoilers-y. So I’ll say this: Harvey is perceptive and far more experienced than Leo and can see things long before Leo is even able to comprehend it.
> 
> — If it seems like I took a little inspiration from elsewhere, it’s because I took some inspiration from Frank Fontaine of Bioshock. I find the characters identify similarly.


End file.
